Black Market Merchant - Chapter 181: Hints of Escape

“What is going on with her?” Lisa asked while following the two, grey arm-banded gangsters down the metal hallway.

Wayne had started to follow them, but Lisa gave him a sharp look and nodded towards the fight room they were tasked with cleaning. Hopefully, Wayne understood her notion and would carry on the ruse on by himself while she was away.

“Well, how should I say this…” The first gangster mumbled as they traveled further away. “She had an ‘accident’ I guess you could say.”

“An accident? What kind? If it is related to working in the lab, you shouldn’t have needed to come all the way out here just to find me to deal with it.” Lisa responded both sounding confused and commanding as if she truly was their superior.

“That’s true but this is something, well, something that a female should be dealing with.” The other gangster replied with an embarrassed tone.

“Huh, what are you playing at? Just tell me, I have stuff to do.” Lisa scoffed.

“Well, err, just go in and see for yourself.” The first gangster stammered opening the door to the meth lab.

Now that she was on the same level as the others, Lisa could get a better look at the conditions that the women were in. Up close they were in worse shape than she thought. They were all uncomfortably skinny and underfed to the point some had their ribs showing. They all were still working at the tables all save for one lady that looked to be near the same age as Lisa.

This lady was standing off to the side near the door between two rough looking gangsters. Her head was bowed low to the point that her greasy brown, shoulder length hair covered her face. Even with her head bowed, she was only tall enough to reach Lisa’s chest, at most. Still dressed in nothing but her bra, panties, and the clear plastic poncho, her hands were clasped over the front of her panties.

Here was the infuriating cause of the problem, it was that time of the month and she clearly had no protection. Blood was dripping in a long line down her right leg from the soiled light blue panties she wore. Her thin frame oozed nothing but embarrassment.

“Are you serious?!” Lisa shouted. For the first time since she had saved Hanna from the puddle, this was the angriest she felt. “How did you let this happen? Don’t you have any kind of respect?”

“Look, we didn’t want this to happen either, but these workers are not our main priority. We can’t provide everything…” One of the gangsters started to explain, but Lisa cut him off.

“I don’t want to hear your excuses!” Lisa stormed over to the poor lady and grabbed her shoulder to usher her out of the room. “Come on let’s get you cleaned up.”

As they left one of the guards called to them, “Sorry it had to be you, but the female guards are off today.”

Lisa shook her head in annoyance and continued to move on. Lisa took the thin lady out into the hallway, but no other guard tried to stop or follow them. As the door closed behind them Lisa didn’t know which way to go. Tossing her luck into play Lisa asked, “Which way to where they keep you all when you aren’t working or where is the nearest bathroom?”

The thin lady looked cautiously through her unwashed hair up at Lisa curiously and gave a timid, soft answer. “T-to the right at that first door is the bathroom. The next one is where they lock us up.”

“Let’s go to the bathroom first and wash you off.” Lisa replied pressing on the woman’s shoulder gently.

The two of them went in and found that all the stalls had their doors removed and to Lisa’s disgust, she saw that a camera was placed above the door. Seeing that there was no privacy they had to make do. Lisa angrily grabbed several paper towels from next to the chipped and rusting faucet sink and soaked them with water.

Then she gestured to the thin lady to get in the first stall. “Go ahead and go in. I’ll stand in the way of the camera.”

Obediently the woman did as she was told. A few moments of awkward silence went by before the lady spoke. “A-are you new here?”

“You could say that.” Lisa replied still fuming on the inside.

“I thought so.” The lady said softly. “I thought it was strange that you didn’t know where we were kept. Also, the other female guards wouldn’t act like you did either.”

“Well, they should!” Lisa scoffed. “Even if you are being forced to work for them, being treated like an animal is just wrong.”

“Ha, you are a strange gangster.” Lisa heard the woman murmured.

“My name is Lisa. What’s yours?” Lisa asked.

“Jenifer.” The thin lady replied. “Are you sure its ok to tell me your name?”

Then the sound of the toilet flushing told Lisa it was time to turn around. Lisa turned and looked down at the shorter woman. Jenifer was looking cautiously up with lifeless brown eyes. The blood on her leg was gone and the light blue panties looked slightly less soaked.

“I don’t see why not and if they don’t want us too, screw them!” Lisa replied giving a reassuring grin. “Come on let’s get you changed, that is if you have a change of clothes.”

“I do.” Jenifer replied softly looking back at the floor.

“Alright, lets go then.” Lisa replied opening the door to the bathroom.

When they entered the next room over, Lisa was beginning to really hate the Mad Dogs even more. Just like the glimpse of the cells that the men were being kept in, the women too were being held in cages. Each cage was tall enough for most women to stand in and each had ten cots that looked to have been unwashed for years. In disorganized piles at the foot of each disgusting cot was what little clothing the ladies owned.

Jenifer walled down the single isle between the cages and stopped in front of the third locked cage. Thankfully, Lisa had taken the keys from the two gangsters she had knocked out and started trying to unlock the cage.

Lisa was on her fifth key in trying to unlock the cage when Jenifer asked in a quiet voice, “A-are you sure you have the key?”

“Yes, I should.” Lisa replied. Then as if to save her, the key unlocked the cage door. Lisa smiled, “See, now go change. I’m sure they don’t want me to keep you away for too long.”

As Jenifer went in to change, Lisa looked around her in abhorrence and thought to herself, “Well, I came here to just find out where the serum was coming from but seeing what is going on here, I can’t just let this go. Even if I can’t take care of so many people right now, I’m a greedy person and anything is better than living like this. Why do humans have to treat each other so poorly?”

“Breaking them out could cause bad relations with the gang and screw my plans up. I need to make sure that if I do break them out of here, I can hide them for as long as I can. The problem is where and how?”

Lisa looked up at the top of the walls and saw that there was a ventilation shaft travelling around the full length of the room. There were also three slated vents that looked to be the same size as the one she and Wayne had come through. Seeing this, she knew she could save these people. Even though she wanted to take over the Mad Dogs, this was something that needed to change asap.

“Hey, Jenifer.” Lisa finally said coming to a conclusion for what to do.

Jenifer finished pulling up her other dirty, but not blood stained, panties and turned around. “Y-yes?”

“Are you from this town?” Lisa asked.

“What town are you talking about?” Jenifer said giving a puzzled look. “Almost every lady here is from one place or the other.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. How did you all come to be here?” Lisa asked as Jenifer left the cage and Lisa closed it behind her.

“W-we were caught by raiders and s-sold to the gang.” Jenifer replied holding back a few tears. “T-Though it is terrible here, the guards say that we’re the lucky ones. The others were sold to another gang or cult, I’m not sure which, called the Skull. According to the rumors they are either cannibals, or they’ll chop people up and sell their organs on the black market.”

“That’s terrible. Were you sold here by yourself?” Lisa asked as they left the cage room and back into the metal hall.

“I-I was. The others were not as lucky.” Jenifer replied somberly. “Several of the ladies were spit apart from their husbands or sons. There are even a few girls that here are barely even sixteen and scared so badly that they cry every night.”

“Well, that’s going to change.” Lisa replied dropping her voice into a whisper. “I’m not actually a Mad Dog. We’ll not yet.”

“I thought so. How did you get in here with out them suspecting you?” Jenifer asked softly as a spark was suddenly lit and her brown eyes look a bit less dead.

“No time to explain all that.” Lisa whispered back. They were now just about to reach the doors to the meth lab. “Just get the word out that at some time soon I’ll figure out a way to get you all out.”

Lisa then opened the door to the meth lab and brought Jenifer back in. It was clear that she wanted to ask Lisa more questions, but Lisa had to move quickly to lessen the chances of suspicion towards her if they took to long. Also, Wayne could be in trouble by this point or the two men she had knocked out might have already woken up and they would surely make things hard to escape once they were found.

Lisa was halfway back to where the fighting room was when she saw Tio and a few other red banded guards with him coming the opposite way. The smart thing would have been to keep her mouth shut and continue looking for Wayne, but after seeing how the ladies were being treated, she couldn’t.

Lisa stood right in Tio’s way and pointed a finger angrily at him, “I can’t believe the way you treat the ladies in the lab. Have you no respect for human decency? I just got back with dealing with a lady bleeding on herself because she had no period protection! Those are not workers, they are slaves!”

It was clear Tio was pissed hearing a supposed subordinate lecturing him, but Lisa’s words were not wrong. Tio stroked heavily on his mustache before he spoke, “Look, you think I want to treat them like that, huh? All the work they are doing is only because of how the triplets wanted to run this place. Sure, their jobs could be done with machines but financially we can’t afford the machines to do that work.”

“Well maybe if you stopped buying people you could afford too!” Lisa replied hotly.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but I only just got my position a few days ago.” Tio replied in turn shaking his own finger in Lisa’s face. “I have extraordinarily little pull with Martinez or the other lieutenants. So, if you are so worked up about it, how about you go put your neck on the line for them? Go and tell Martinez what you said to me and see how that works out.”

“You haven’t spoken with Jackson yet? He’s in charge of finances and could arrange it to work out.” Lisa countered.

“Ha, that nicely dressed fart face can’t do a thing about this.” Tio scoffed. “Martinez has some kind of deal with the raiders we buy from to not attack us in exchange for us buying from them.”

“So, the problem is with Martinez then? That guy’s days are numbered.” Lisa grumbled.

“Hey, watch it.” Tio snapped and he shoved Lisa’s shoulder roughly. The other guards with him also stepped forward menacingly. “Talk like that could end you up in a heap of trouble. You might be big, for a woman, but that won’t stop you from getting a beating from bad mouthing our boss.”

“That may be.” Lisa replied giving Tio a cold gaze. “But how much longer will he be our boss?”

“What are you talking about?” Tio asked narrowing his eyes at her.

“Oh, you haven’t heard the rumor?” Lisa said giving a sly grin.

“About what?” Tio replied.

“There’s someone that’s planning on challenging Martinez to lead the Mad Dogs. A woman called Queen. I haven’t seen her myself, but apparently she’s a Match Fighter and the one that killed the triplets and Martinez’s bodyguard too.” Lisa replied.

“You are joking right?” Tio laughed. “There’s no one within this whole territory stupid enough to fight him.”

“Fine, don’t believe me.” Lisa said giving a shrug. “Go talk to Jackson about Queen when you go to ask about getting those machines to replace the workers here. Now excuse me, I need to get my partner and head back to the compound.”

Tio watched Lisa storm by him, and he could believe the audacity that she had speaking to him like that. Though he wanted to reprimand her right then but the seed that she had planted in him, about a new leader for the gang, intrigued him.

“Jackson huh?” Tio murmured. “Maybe it is time I did go over there and make my presence known that I too am a lieutenant and make things change around here. Those triplets made it hard making it possible for me to conduct my experiments and getting more funds would be nice.”